Pete's Weighty ( Fly Fishing ) Words

I’m back from a couple of weeks in Tanzania. Now, I love my fishing holidays (I have a few booked for later in the year to offset the lack of fishing on this one!) but this was truely amazing.

Being just 6 feet away from a pride of lions is something I will never forget or seeing a pack of hyenas leaving for an evenings hunt was a magical sight. The tents we stayed in were not fenced off so it was not unusual to be awoken by a munching sound just outside . We would creep out of bed and see a huge eye of an elephant, hipo or giraffe just a few feet away from where we stood. The highlight for me was the walking drive where we saw plenty of animals but also the tracks  of animals and signs of a hunt. This was the only time our guide carried a gun and I assumed it was incase of an angry lion, leopard or hipo but it was in fact for water buffalo. Apparently they are the most unpredictable of anything you are likely to encounter. I have some photos and will pop them up shortly but some of the things we saw I will never forget.

So what does this have to do with fly fishing in Devon? I guess not a lot but I have to say how impressed I was with the guides and how they worked as a team. Although there were not many lodges near us when someone had spotted something they would pass on the information and I thought this was pretty neat. They also had a few tricks up their sleeves that made the day even more special and I have to admit I nicked a couple!

There was some beach holiday too and luckily I packed an 8wt and some clousers and spent some fun time catching jacks and small cuda. It was fun figuring out the fish and where they were and I was a little surprised to see that they didn’t want a frantic retrieve but a nice steady pull. Like everyone in Tanzania they seem to be pretty relaxed!

When I was writing yesterdays blog we had pretty good cloud cover and it wasn’t too cool. As the sun went down and we got ready to fish the clouds had lifted revealing the full moon and a nice little bit of mist to go with it. It didn’t bother us too much and we carried on despite the odds being against us.I only get to fish this stretch of the Taw on a Monday so we thought to hell with it and cracked on. It was a really fun evening and despite not catching any sea trout. Toby had a few nice browns but the most important thing was that we had a good time and had quite a few laughs as well. As ever it isn’t always about the fish but just being out there with buddies enjoying the experience.

We had some nice comments come in from happy clients yesterday which is always a nice start to the week.

Bob was a great guide. He’s an easy going guy and he taught me the rudiments of double handed casting very effectively.

Stuart

Pete-great day on the river you’re a top river guide.

Cheers

David

CLICK HERE to see Bob in action

CLICK HERE to see Pete in action

Bob was out yesterday with Mike who was brushing up his spey casting before going on a fishing trip!

Fathers Day was a really nice treat as Charlie cooked a most excellent full english for me for breakfast and then a barbie to finish the day. I also managed to sneak on to the Taw for a couple of hours and although the fishing wasn’t exactly hot it was good to be there.

Mondays are always a busy day for catching up and as I am away to warmer climes in a few days I was making sure that Mark was OK with keeping the cogs of the school oiled whilst I am away. Those of you that have had tuition know he is an excellent instructor but computers are another thing altogether. I have written fail safe notes so fingers crossed!

We have been doing a Monday night sea trout session and he was hoping to join Toby and I but his car is low on fuel and believe it or not there is no fuel in Okehmapton. You can guess how pleased he was! So it is just Toby and I tonight.

Bob was out teaching this afternoon so I manned the office and do not tell him I nabbed one of our SewinCaster lines and will give it a go tonight. They seem to have been a runaway success and popular with sea trouters and now things are warming up, bass anglers too. It is perfect for turning over heavier flies and our partner Illtyd Griffiths has spent a lot of time making sure every little detail is right. He even went as far as checking the figure of eight-ability of it. It seems to be the must have line at the mo according to our retailers which is great news but perhaps not for the sea trout!

I, at last, have a pic from Bob from his salmon weekend where one of the guys had a rather nice salmon…

Also to see smooth Bob in action with his new favourite rod CLICK HERE

I’m not trying to get all mushy or sentimental here but there are moments when you look back that are milestones or landmarks that somehow shape your life and help point you in the direction that your heart is telling you to go.

In this case it is books. Usually I am out on the water in some way but I do like to sit down and read a book. Hardly surprisingly they are usually fishing related. I do own a fair few fishing books but most are “about” fly fishing rather than “how to” fly fish. There is never substitution for being out there and learning!

The first is Trout Bum by John Gierach. The stories are fantastic and are not about how many caught but about enjoying the company of friends and life in general. I love the speed and pace of John’s life and especially reading about the trips and characters that he spends time on the water with. I have tried to apply a little of his philosophies to my life and they fit in pretty well. I have also been lucky to fish on quite a few of the rivers that he has fished including his home water the St Vrain in Lyons. Even luckier I have met and fished with some of his buddies from the books and although he was out of town when I was over I got a good feel of what the place was about. One of the highlights for me was having breakfast in Lyons where I have read he likes to eat. The waitress on hearing a strange accent got talking to Ray and I and we told her we were over for the fishing. She said had we met “John the fisherman”? We said we heard he was out of town but I kind of liked it as I am known as Pete the fisherman in my little village!

 The other book is the Pursuit of Wild Trout by Mike Weaver. I remember this book turning up from Coch Y Bondhu books and as ever it was beautifully packaged in brown paper. I devoured the book from cover to cover and I knew Devon was where I wanted to head due to the wealth of wild trout fishing that is available down here. I am not sure that I have ever admitted this to Emma but I did have maps out when we were house hunting looking for the best spot that would allow easy access to rivers from both of the Moors! I have also had the pleasure of fishing with Mike and was out with him on the Taw on Thursday and always enjoy watching the maestro in action.

I never tire of both of these books and have read both on many occassions and always pick up a new nugget that helps my fishing or just life in general.

Pic below of Mark and David who is a newcomer to fly fishing but will no doubt be doing a whole lot more in the future!

I was due to do some guiding on a chalkstream with Paul. Paul is a regular client of ours and is one of the keenest fly fishermen I know! I thought it would be really cool for him to experience a chalkstream mayfly hatch. Although we get them here in Devon they aren’t of the sort of magnitude that they get a bit further up country. Paul is also a keen fly tyer too and was wanting to know what sort of patterns he should tie up. I talked him through a few and said tie them on size 10 and 8’s as they have them big up there!

So I packed the truck the night before having seen the weather forecast and it looked like the bad rain (the day was set for Tuesday) was going the skirt round the edge of where we were fishing. Next morning I set off and all was dry when I left. On the A303 I got a call from Toby who had got up really early to fly fish for some bass in Dorset. He’d had some but also had some persistent rain. Two minutes after putting the phone down I hit the rain. It wasn’t looking good. As ever I was a little early so grabbed a coffee and waited for Paul where we had arranged to meet. I walked down and had a look at the river, it had come up a bit and was carrying a little colour but was fishable. Paul wasn’t far behind and we set off starting on one of the carriers where he had an out of season grayling and we quickly moved on. I went for shallower stretches so that we were in with a chance. Paul picked up the odd fish but the rain did relent. We decided on a pub lunch to dry off and plan our next move.

The mayfly on this particular beat are still towards the top so we headed there and walked down to the bottom and got in. The rain had just about stopped but it was still overcast and temps upped a notch. Perfect! Perfect is one of the words I could use but what unfolded was truly magical. It was as if the planets had aligned and everything fell into place. We witnessed an epic hatch of mays that had fish slamming into the danicas as they tried to leave the water. Paul had a fantastic time and landed plenty of fish including a nice 15incher! (no stocked fish here, only wild!) and I was jumping up and down next to him with excitement. It ended up one of those perfect days and when we left the water it was after 8 o’clock!

I didn’t have the video for the hatch as it was deeper water and there was still plenty of rain about but I did take it later and there are a few fish that you can see caught by clicking here. As you’ll see the light wasn’t so good as it got later but hopefully will give you an idea!

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 I popped down to the Taw and had a look today. The water was up and coloured and had some speed to it. I am lucky the river is only a few minutes drive away and although it wouldn’t have mattered too much I really wanted to have a quick hour of fishing. To make it more special I had Charlie, my daughter, with me. She is 16 and fly fishing for her isn’t in the top ten of cool things despite her old man trying to make her think otherwise! I wasn’t going to miss this chance to spend some time on the water with her and she offered to bring the video camera and take a few shots.

I rigged up with a mayhammer and a flash back pheasant tail tied 3ft off of the dry fly. As the water was coloured (we only had 1ft of visibilty) I used a bigger dry than normal in the hopes it might drag a fish up to take a look. It became apparent that you had to work tight in to the bank in any pockets of slack water as it was moving far too fast in the main lanes. 2 quick takes to the dry (which I missed) and then a landed fish had me taking the nymph off. A small trickle of mayflies helped my cause and we did see the odd splashy rise to them. The dry was doing a great job and although probably a tiny bit too big for some of the fish it was what they wanted. We didn’t stay on the river for long as it rained again but it was great to fish at a challenging time and was rewarding to catch fish off of the top when the books might have suggested some heavy gear might be a better bet. I guess thats why I’ll never be a competitive fisherman as it is all about having fun!

Anyway, rather than reading about it have a look at it as it happened by clicking here

I was supposed to be on the Taw today but alas the rain has meant that I have a day off. Mike popped in yesterday as he was interested in one of our rods (it turned out 2!) and it turned out during the phone conversation that we had met before and had done some fly casting together previously. He is really keen and asked me what time I get to work. When I said to him 7.30am he said he see me then! Thats the sort of talk I like and we were down on the lake chucking a few lines before even our trout in the lake had woken up!

Coming from Cornwall he is into throwing flies for salty stuff and as a result is very interested in distance casting. We messed around with different line and rod combos and had a really good time. Below is a shot of Mike throwing a long one!

Bob was teaching on the Dart yesterday on a piece of water he hadn’t seen before. He was rather taken by it!

He had a nice message from Sean who was one of the people on his course last Saturday and a really nice call from Ian who was also there..

Hi Bob

just to say thanks again for a great day on Saturday-learnt some new things and plenty of ideas to work on. Managed 3 sea trout after you left- biggest just over 2lb. Will definitely be down again!

Regards

Sean

Video links

Pete and Mark on the Dart

James fishing

Hope you enjoy!

I was laying in bed and heard the rain start at about 5.30 this morning. I am writing this at 6.30pm and it has just stopped. I had my truck loaded and had planned to stay on the river after work and do some fly fishing as there are plenty of salmon and sea trout around. Sometimes it doesn’t always play out the way you hope and I had to make the call to Richard at 8am from the office and call off our day on the river. I am starting to feel sorry for Richard as it looks like the weather gods have decided that he isn’t going to catch a trout from the river on a dry fly just yet! We are re-planning and I am sure it is only a matter of time. This meant I was at work already and had plenty to catch up on so it wasn’t so bad but I’d rather have been on the river!

Mark was also teaching on the lake and was with 13 year old James. I had my video camera with me and so I popped down to see how they were getting on and to take a few pics. I have spent plenty of time teaching with Mark but it was a real pleasure to watch him in action and watching the video makes me proud to be part of such a great team. He was fantastic with James and was constantly passing on information and tips to him and I know James is hooked now!

Mark, James and Cethin, his grandfather, were due to have lunch down at the lake but the rain brought them up so Bob, Jax and myself joined them. It was good to all sit down and talk fishing!

Anyway, enough of me talking about it take a look at how well James did and when he caught his first fish. In between using the camcorder I kept it under my jacket which meant it steamed up when I took it out just as James hooked his first fish….sorry James!!  Click here to see James catch a few 

Bob,Jax,Mark,Cethin and James all tuck into lunch at SFFS HQ!

It is always really nice to see someone go off at the end of the day having learnt loads but having had a good time and be it an existing fisherman (or woman) who now has something that will now help get a few extra fish on the bank or a newcomer to fly fishing who has left enthused and ready to embark on a new pastime. We keep in touch with everybody and it is cool to hear how things have gone and if some of the things we have shown people are working…

Below is a message from Colin, who along with David, wanted to learn how to tackle their stretch of the Otter with a bit more confidence. I am so pleased it looks like it is working. Well done Colin!!

Hi Pete, thank you for the most enlightening morning for David and myself. Lots of people often have the skills, but few have a natural ability and  enthusiasm to teach their subject in an easy to understand way. You have  that ability along with an easy-going manner that puts people at ease  enabling them to learn and progress. Both David and I learnt and understood so much that we now both feel cap   able of casting in most circumstances. I still can't Double Haul but I have  to say that I haven't needed it on the Otter yet ! David says that it really was a morning well spent and I agree  wholeheartedly with him. So once again thanks for all you taught us and the manner with which you  did it, you have enhanced our ability, enjoyment and experience whilst  fishing. Kind regards Colin

If you haven’t seen this already it is a day Mark and I spent on the Dart, it is worth a view just for watching me doing an impression of a jaquzzi! click here 

Mark has put a new blog up and as ever is an interesting and amusing read!

Now, it is admission time, I’m not too bad with a fly rod but a video camera is another matter! Mark and I popped up to the Moors last week and did a spot of fly fishing with 2 and 3 wt rods and small dry flies. The fishing was good and we did our best to capture it on video so click here for a peek. It is a bit rough and ready but I sort of like it that way rather than a polished Ridley Scott version…perhaps that’s just an excuse. Hope you enjoy it and as ever we are trying to be a little bit different….hope you enjoy!

 Bob hosted his salmon course and it went down really well which was also aided by a 12lber! He promised he took his camera so hopefully some pics up soon. The team seem to be doing really well on the bit we guide on the Tamar with Champo having a customer returning a good 14lber and a few 2 1/2lb sea trout last week. I am guiding on there with Richard for trout on Weds weather permitting…